


You Can Count on Me

by Trefoil_9



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AmberTale, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Special, Core mention, Fluff, Good W. D. Gaster, Hugs, Random galaxy hoodie because it's great that's why, The Riverperson is there for like two seconds just to screw with you, hugs for everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 16:06:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8997619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trefoil_9/pseuds/Trefoil_9
Summary: It’s two days before Christmas and Snowdin has been made impassible by the worst blizzard in years, meaning that for the first time ever, Sans won’t be home for Christmas. Grillbz tries to keep The Greatly Displeased Papyrus occupied. May contain nuts, clichés and fluff. Standalone Christmas special, loosely connected to CORE. Same AU.





	

The darkness around Snowdin was alive and heaving, like some huge and frightened creature. The air was blurred white with flying snow. It made a soft icy patter against the windows of Grillby’s, which flung their orange light only a short distance through the storm.

It was the night before Christmas eve and Grillby’s was open until midnight. It was sparsely filled with monsters who didn’t have family, or who’d brought the family out with them, or who just wanted to get out of the house for some reason (possibly related to family.) A radio was set on the corner of the bar, playing Christmas songs intermitted with alarmed remarks on the badness of the weather. The entire Underground as far as the outskirts of New Home was suffering a magic storm—in Snowdin, it kicked up a worse-than-usual blizzard, shaking at least four feet of snow down from the crevices of Mt. Ebott above them in the blackness. Waterfall had become a small, grounded, occasionally bioluminescent hurricane. Hotland was reportedly experiencing tremors and unusual lava flow. That was what Papyrus was primarily worried about. Sans was in Hotland, working on the Core. The radio announcer had briefly mentioned the project, not surprising since it was almost the only thing of interest in Hotland. At the time, the skeleton Core had lost some supports and a sciency thing that Papyrus forgot the name of, but it was still standing, and from hearing Sans’s complaints, important things falling off into the lava was all in a day’s work. The lab was structurally safe and hadn’t been damaged. Supposedly. That had been a long time ago.

Without the storm Sans would have been in Snowdin by now. He’d called at the last minute, saying that the weather was so bad he was having trouble finding transportation. Then the storm picked up and communications were cut off. Lines were down, and the raw magic in the air scrambled cell signals.

Papyrus was not a resentful monster, but he was decidedly put out.

Sans sometimes talked about their dad’s chill. He wasn’t cold or unemotional, quite the opposite, but he accepted anything the world threw at him with a smile. Papyrus didn’t understand how he had done it. It sounded like mum hadn’t either. He bet they would have liked each other.

He couldn’t believe he was in Grillby’s, inhaling an atmosphere of grease and smut. He never came to Grillby’s except to pick up Sans. But he didn’t want to sit all alone in the big dark empty house down at the end of the street, by the outermost edge of town, which was pointlessly decorated for Christmas. Grillbz’s radio was still working, except for the occasional lapse into indistinct chatter, and it was better than being alone, even with the occasional ribbing from one of the regulars who thought it was funny to finally see him there and the radio giving more and more static instead of information. Finally it gave up, emitting nothing but white noise. After a while Grillbz reached over and turned it off. Papyrus, who’d been sitting next to it and leaning closer and closer as it got less distinct, sat up and made a dismayed noise.  
“.we’re not getting any more from that.” Said Grillbz in his quiet crackling voice. “.you could turn on the jukebox if you want music.”  
“NO, IT’S NOT THAT…”  
“.there’s no news, either.this is a big storm of inconvenient intensity:I believe we knew that.” He nodded at one of the windows, a blank tablet of rushing white.  
“BUT,” said Papyrus.  
“.are you worried about Sans?”  
“JUST A BIT, YES. HE’S SURPRISINGLY CARELESS ABOUT HIS OWN SAFETY FOR SOMEONE WITH SUCH LOW HP, AND HE DOESN’T HAVE ME THERE TO TAKE CARE OF HIM.”  
“.no.but he has Gaster.”  
“WELL YES,” said Papyrus, sounding unconvinced.  
“.I trust him.”  
“YE—WAIT A MOMENT, YOU KNOW HIM?”  
“.somewhat.in a different capacity than he serves now.” Papyrus cocked his head sideways. Grillbz, generally not much of a talker, looked around for a way to extricate himself from the discussion and found none. Well, if Papyrus could break character by coming to sit at the bar until closing like his brother did when he was home, Grillbz could break character enough to talk to him.  
“.we were guides after the Barrier was created.monsters outside the Barrier were to be killed on sight.we helped get them to it.”  
“WOWIE! REALLY? THAT SOUNDS EXCITING!”  
“.not really.”  
“DIDN’T YOU FIGHT IN THE WAR TOO? DID YOU KNOW HIM THEN?”  
“.that’s an entirely different story.Gaster was a pacifist.”  
“REALLY? SO YOU KNEW EACH OTHER?”  
Grillbz crackled quietly for a few moments.  
“.I may have shown up at his home uninvited to imply that he was a coward and attempt to goad him into joining the army.and then become directly responsible for the death of one of his few remaining family members.consciously, I think he forgives me, but he hasn’t forgotten.”  
"OH."  
There was a silence. Papyrus hopefully turned the radio back on, then off again at hearing the crackle of static.  
“.it worked for longer than I thought it would.”  
“NYEH. HEY! DO YOU HAVE PLANS FOR CHRISTMAS? I’VE ASKED SOME FRIENDS OVER SO I WOULDN’T—I MEAN, I’LL HAVE EXTRA FOOD.”  
“.” Grillbz appeared to consider. “.no.no plans.yes, I’d like that.thank you.”  
“GOOD! ER—WHAT DO YOU EAT, BY THE WAY? I’M NOT SURE I’VE EVER SEEN YOU EAT.”  
Grillbz shrugged.  
“.alcohol.”  
“ER. ALRIGHT!”  
“.I’m sure there will be something, don’t go out of your way.I rather like potatoes.”  
“OH GOOD!”

A family of dogs left and suddenly the place seemed much emptier. Talk was dying down, turning to the subject of getting home without getting lost. Most of the residents of Snowdin were furry and nosy enough to get home safely in a blizzard. Papyrus didn’t have the doglike powers of sniffing that the other sentries had, but it took a long time for him to feel the cold. In a blizzard like this, however, he’d be glad to get inside. It did start to feel unpleasant after a while. He thought of Sans and Gaster in Hotland, watching the lava roil with whoever else of the team hadn’t made it home before the storm. He wondered what they’d end up doing for Christmas. Sans hadn’t discussed the possibility of staying there with him, but they probably had some plans.

Whatever he did, whatever he told himself, he couldn’t escape a nagging feeling that all was not well and it never would be, somehow. That there were things wrong with the Underground that couldn’t be set right by friendship and understanding. He tried to avoid those feelings. They were sad feelings. But this was a sad night. Had Sans ever been away from him at Christmas? No. Not even that one time he had to work all day. He’d still spent all his spare time with Papyrus, and they’d lived together, and eaten together, and there had been a tree with presents. It just seemed so wrong, so utterly wrong and bad, for him to be gone at Christmas, and he couldn’t help but feel somehow betrayed. He tried to shake it off. The storm was an impersonal effect of an incomprehensible natural cause. He’d just have to take his setbacks like a true hero would, with his head up and a grin on his face. It wasn’t that bad.

It was almost closing time, but he still didn’t want to go home.

Perhaps it was the brightness that made Grillby’s seem so empty. Was it always so bright this late? Grillbz should be getting tired from burning so bright. He thought. Maybe it didn’t work like that, and he didn’t spend much time in Grillby’s himself, after all.

Another of the sentry dogs had stood to leave and was stretching when something thudded against the door outside. A moment later it creaked open. A tall figure clutching a bundle stumbled in and stood as if dazed. Their coat was caked with snow.  
“Shut the door!” someone shouted after the moment of surprise had passed, and someone else jumped up to shut it. Papyrus noticed that Grillbz was looking intently at the newcomer, who shakily loosened their scarf and threw back their hood, scattering snow across the floor. Papyrus just had time to notice the skeletal, oddly broken-looking hands. Then he saw the face, blinking in the light, with snow driven into its cracks.  
“DR. GASTER?”  
Gaster looked at him as if he’d just noticed him, then walked stiffly across the room towards him, unfolding the bundle from the front of his coat.  
“Merry Christmas, Papyrus.” He held out the bundle. It wriggled.  
“Ghhh—wha—are we there yet?” it said. Papyrus tackled it out of Gaster’s hands.  
“SAAAAAAAANS!”  
“Paps? Oh heya. Mind untangling me from this thing? God I’m cold. Merry Christmas by the way.” Papyrus dug Sans out of the blanket he was wrapped in and hugged him on the floor. His coldness sank through Papyrus’s clothes.  
“YOU’RE BACK!”  
“Of course I’m back. I told you I was coming.”  
Gaster slumped into Papyrus’s stool, placing himself next to Grillbz. His eyesockets were blank with fatigue.  
“Hey friend. Can you get me something warm?” Grillbz walked away. A moment later he reappeared on the other side of the bar, dusted the snow off of Gaster with his apron and hugged him. Gaster leaned into the hug with a grateful whimper.  
“Well that’s—not what I was—thank you. Thank you, that’s nice.”  
“.how did you end up here?”  
“I saw your light. You’re burning very bright tonight. Did you know I was coming?”  
“.I considered it likely.”  
“Thank you.”  
Papyrus stood up, holding Sans at arm’s length.  
“SANS WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?”  
“Clothing.”  
“YOU LOOK LIKE SOME SORT OF HIPSTER. DR. GASTER, WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?”  
Gaster made a contented sound, his face buried in Grillbz’s flames.  
“.I think he looks better than usual.” Said Grillbz.  
“SO DO I! I LIKE IT BROTHER!”  
“That’s nice.” Sans was wearing a galaxy hoodie and sweatpants. And he was falling asleep while dangling from his armpits.  
“IS IT FROM DR. GASTER?”  
“Does it have stars on it? Then yes.”  
“BROTHER! DON’T GO TO SLEEP! YOU JUST GOT HERE!”  
“It’s been a long way bro.”  
“IT MUST HAVE BEEN! WAIT A MOMENT, HOW DID YOU GET HERE? THE FERRIES HAVE STOPPED.”  
“Doc is friends with the Riverperson.”  
“Hello~”  
Sans was suddenly awake.  
“Whoa, you followed us?”  
“None of your business~ I go where I please~”  
“Well, that’s them—aaand they’re gone again.”  
“WHAT ON EARTH? HOW VERY STRANGE.”  
“They’re efficient.” Sans yawned. “Can we go home now?”  
“YES! DR. GASTER? DO YOU HAVE SOMEWHERE TO STAY?”  
“Um..”  
“COME WITH US! YOU’VE FALLEN ASLEEP ON OUR COUCH BEFORE, REMEMBER?”  
“I have.”  
“WE OUGHT TO WRITE YOUR NAME ON IT!”

The house seemed different when Papyrus walked in, keeping a firm grip on his snow-blinded friends. It looked the same, but it had lost the wistful, lonely feeling that had driven him to Grillby’s in the first place. Now that he thought of it, actually, emptiness would be far from a problem the day after—no, it was after midnight. It was already Christmas Eve. That would be tomorrow.  
“SANS I INVITED SOME MONSTERS OVER FOR DINNER TOMORROW.”  
“That’s nice bro.”  
“A LOT OF THEM.”  
“Of course. Half the town?”  
“NO! NOT MORE THAN A QUARTER, CERTAINLY. AND MOST OF THEM MIGHT NOT COME.”  
“Heh, sounds like fun. Do you have enough food?”  
“ER—YES—BUT IT’S NOT COOKED—“  
“Leave that to me,” said Gaster, flopping down on the couch. Sans chuckled.  
“Hear that? We’re all set.”  
“DID HE CARRY YOU THE WHOLE WAY?”  
“Just where the snow was over my head. So basically yes.”  
“WHY?”  
Sans shrugged.  
“Well he wasn’t busy. He doesn’t have family either.”  
“OH WELL THEN! IT’S GOOD HE’S HERE WITH US!”  
“It would be good if he could sleep, also,” said Gaster.  
“OH OF COURSE! SANS GET TO BED, DON’T WANT YOU BEING SICK FOR CHRISTMAS.”  
“Heh. Seeya bro.” Sans gave Papyrus a final hug and started for the stairs. Papyrus stretched, looking around. Again, everything seemed brighter than usual, but unlike at Grillby’s, he had an idea that he was imagining it here. He didn’t mind.

 

**A/N: _I'll be home for Christmas,_ you can count on me _, etc._**

**Undyne probably spent the storm sprinting around Waterfall with her soaked hair streaming behind her in the wind screaming “NGAAAAH! I LOVE DAYS LIKE THESE, WHEN THE AIR FEEL LIKE IT’S TRYING TO ATTACK YOUR FACE! NGAAAAAH!” I mean, she’s a fish monster, so she probably likes wet weather.**

**CORE is my other story. You can consider this as canon for CORE or not, so far I don’t think it contradicts anything.**

**Merry Christmas everyone.  
(Unless you’re reading this in June, in which case, Happy Whatever Day.)**


End file.
